13th April - Falmouth, Antigua

True Colours
James Scrimshaw
Thu 24 Apr 2014 11:19

Position 17:00.90N 061:46.38W

We left Riviere Sens at 05.55 (by which time the all night music had just stopped).  Behind Guadaloupe the wind behaved in typical fashion – up and down, left and right – so we motored for about 3 hours until we got to Deshaises at the north end of the island.  Then with double reefed main and single reefed / full genoa we enjoyed a great sail across ro Antigua in winds  15 – 20 kn.  The forecast had been for the wind to be from the East, backing ENE, giving us a close reach moving towards a beat.  As the wind was initially broader than this we aimed east of the rhumb line to make it easier when the wind backed.  So the wind decided to veer, giving a very broad reach for the last hour or so, with big waves rolling in behind so it was exciting hand steering all the way.

Once in Falmouth we called John Bentley (who keeps moorings in the harbour) but he had none available so we anchored for the night before moving to a mooring on Monday.

Met up with Oli who was on watch Sunday, but had dinner with us on Monday night.  Seems he is enjoying himself and looks well. We will now stay here until 22nd, when we move to Jolly Harbour. Quite a few classic yachts here already in anticipation of the Classics Regatta this weekend;  some have sailed quite close to us (as in 5 metres behind our stern) including one which later tacked and ran aground exactly where toby had told us there was shallow water.  As the efforts of 4 adjacent tenders proved inadequate, the local rescue services were called out, and towed the boat off.